Latest venture by FCS Urban Ministries targets change for South Atlanta community

ATLANTA – April 8, 2015 – FCS Urban Ministries (FCS), the Atlanta-based nonprofit transforming underserved neighborhoods to flourishing communities, announces the grand opening of the Carver Neighborhood Market for Saturday, May 16, 2015. The Carver Neighborhood Market, a program of FCS, will provide access to fresh, healthy and affordable food for the South Atlanta community.

The soft opening of the Carver Neighborhood Market, scheduled for Wednesday, April 22, 2015, will welcome founding members for a first look at the completely renovated space, which will feature a full line of grocery products including fresh, locally-sourced produce. FCS Director of Economic Development Jeff Delp, a long-time neighborhood resident, has led the planning process for the future market and will oversee its day-to-day operations when it opens.

“Previously, the 2,000-square-foot space was home to a community thrift store, another initiative by FCS that served the South Atlanta neighborhood from September 2003 to January 2015,” said Delp. “Over time, we saw the community had less of a need for the thrift store but a growing need for access to fresh, healthy and affordable food. That’s when our plans for the market began in March 2014.”

“We have followed the growing crisis around food deserts and identified the opportunity for FCS to convert the thrift store into a food market that would thereby help to transform the neighborhood into a food oasis,” said Jim Wehner, president of FCS. “The Carver Neighborhood Market fulfills not only a need for the neighborhood, but also our mission at large, and that’s a win for everyone.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines urban food deserts as low income communities where a third of the community lives more than a mile from a grocery store. In the Atlanta area, more than half a million people live in what the USDA would identify as food deserts, and in the South Atlanta community specifically, the closest national chain grocery to the Carver Neighborhood Market is approximately 3.5 miles away.

The Carver Neighborhood Market is part of the South Atlanta Marketplace and located at 1297 Jonesboro Road, Atlanta, GA 30315. For more information, visit www.carvermarket.com, or join the community on Facebook and Twitter.

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About FCS Urban Ministries

FCS Urban Ministries (FCS) partners with underserved neighborhoods to provide innovative and holistic development that promotes flourishing communities where God’s shalom is present. FCS is a team of visionaries and social entrepreneurs, transforming distressed urban neighborhoods through Christian community development. For more than 30 years, FCS has demonstrated that the most transformative urban ministry is community-based. With an emphasis on neighborhood leadership and a commitment to mixed-income housing development, the FCS strategy yields both social and spiritual vitality as well as economic viability. For more information, visit: www.fcsministries.org.